A group of airport workers, including wheelchair attendants, baggage handlers, cabin cleaners, shuttle drivers, and customer service agents strike outside Terminal C at Newark Airport in 2017. (Angus Mordant for New York Daily News)

We move people. It’s the core of the Port Authority’s mission — “to keep the region moving” — and we do it by rail, through the air, on the waterfront, over rivers and underground. With that comes an incredible responsibility: to protect the traveling public.

That means taking care of, and retaining, the workforce that keeps our facilities running. For years, a critical component of this workforce — workers at our three major airports (Newark Liberty, LaGuardia and JFK), most of whom are employees of airlines, airline contractors and concessionaires — have not earned enough to keep up with region’s astronomical cost of living. As a result, the turnover rate has been sky high, more than one-third every year and on the rise.

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Constant churn among airport workers is a serious security concern. The lost experience, fewer training opportunities and low morale not only mean abnormal activity doesn’t get spotted or that staff don’t know what to do in an emergency situation. Many workers who live below the poverty line and rely on food stamps don’t even stay in their jobs long enough to be properly trained or vetted.

So we sought to do what so many other airports throughout the U.S. have done for their workers to address this challenge: raise their minimum wage.

The results have been encouraging, demonstrating significant reductions in turnover rates and measurable improvements in safety, security and efficient operations.

On Sept. 27, our Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to follow suit by expanding the Port Authority’s minimum wage policy for airport workers at Newark, LaGuardia and JFK to $19 an hour by 2023 — the highest in the country.

Beginning Nov. 1, Newark workers will see a $2 per-hour increase in wages, from $10.45 to $12.45; salaries then will rise to $15.60 by Sept. 1 of 2019, when they will then match those of workers at JFK and LaGuardia — closing the gap that has existed for too long for workers essentially doing the same job.

This policy, which the Daily News advocated for relentlessly, was the product of months of extensive study and public input. We were committed to do right by our passengers’ safety, do right by the workers, and to do so in the right fashion following a detailed, data-driven process that would stand up to any scrutiny.

No doubt, this is a worker victory, and one they deserve. But it’s also a victory for all those who use our airports. It’s a fortunate scenario in which the arguments for economic justice and public safety are in alignment.

As we have seen during emergencies, manmade and natural, people are our greatest asset. We cannot forget this critical fact as we dedicate ourselves to upgrading so much of the region’s infrastructure that is well past its prime.

Just last week, we announced a $13 billion plan to transform JFK Airport into a truly 21st-century gateway. Work is rapidly advancing on the $2.7 billion effort to replace Newark Liberty’s long-reviled Terminal A with a state-of-the-art new Terminal One. And at LaGuardia, the extraordinary progress of what will be the country’s first new airport in 25 years will soon see new gates come online.

We move people. That’s what we do. And with increasing the minimum wage for workers our airports, we’re proud to be moving them — and our region — in the right direction.

O’Toole is chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Cotton is executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.